The Facebook feeds are awash with memes urging everyone to recognize their right to say "Merry Christmas". Just about everyone has an opinion about the appropriate way to wish someone well during the winter season. "Happy Holidays" has been targeted by pushy religious types as being some sort of wishy washy avoidance of what they, individually, consider to be the "True" spirit of the season. This narrow-minded insistence that others not only acknowledge but also conform to one individual belief system is a sad mutation of the true spirit of the season.
In a matter of hours (depending which coast you're on, if you want to get really specific) it will officially be the mid-point of the dark half of our solar cycle. The daylight has been waning since Autumn's equinox, and many of us have been experiencing that old familiar seasonal depression. As the days become gloomier, both literally and figuratively, we have looked upon our homes and our country with a growing sense of disdain and uncertainty. Despite the very specific nature of our national struggles these days, the general sense of unease is a part of this particular seasonal cycle.
The flowers of summer are rotting in the frost, and here in the midwest it is especially apparent that the Earth's death cycle is in full swing. The miracle of the winter holidays is in the light we perpetuate within ourselves during this time of great darkness.
Our souls may be heavy with worry, our faces may sting in the winter wind and our bones may ache with the deep chill of the lengthy nights -but we are human beings. We have the capacity to connect with one another spiritually, or connect with something greater than ourselves, and keep the warmth of life and light alive. Whether you believe in a diety who breathes life into and out of the world in cycles, or a great web of humanity that is in itself a divine power in the universe -each one of us is a miracle, and can share a little piece of that comfort with everyone around us.
Isn't that what the Christian savior was said to be doing down here? Spreading the Good News that through compassion there is peace, and that we should love each other without judgement?
Whether you celebrate the birth of a sacrificial lamb, the miracle of an empty oil lamp burning to maintain an ancient peoples' hope or simply rejoice at the strengthening of the sun's power on planet Earth -the Winter Solstice has always been a time to celebrate the light of hope in the long dark night, and the interconnectedness of the human spirit. Merry Yule and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
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